


This Little Mick of Mine

by GachMoBrea



Series: My Father, Barry Allen [14]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: & Married, AU, Alternate Universe, Barry is Len's DAD, Birthday Party!, Bouncy Houses, Cute, Father!Barry, Fire, Gen, Little!Len, Not Everything is What you Think it Will Be, OOC, Ring Toss, Ronnie & Caitlin are Parents, Ronnie Lives!, Son!Len, Step-Mom!Iris, Young!Mick, fluff!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 12:29:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7844995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here's some Fluff to help us all get over that last (horrible, terrible, it will never happen again) Part in the Series:::</p><p>Len meets the Mick of this Universe.</p><p>And his parents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Little Mick of Mine

Barry swears off babysitters forever and beyond that. He literally said that to Len, then Joe, then Iris, then everyone related to them that called.  
If Joe or Iris can't watch Len, then Barry either stays home or takes Len to the precinct.

It's during one of those 'stay in' days that Barry gets a call on his cell that he answers with an excited, "Caitlin! What's up?"  
He listens for a while before turning to Len with a grin, "Do you want to hang out with Mick, kiddo?"  
"Mick?" the internal question comes out his mouth and Len smiles to cover the shock of hearing his partner's name. "Sure!"  
"We're in," Barry chuckles over the line. "Noon tomorrow? Okay. Thanks, Caitlin!"

 

Len feels like the child he is now as he tries to force himself to sleep that night.  
He knows it won't be 'his' Mick, that this universe will have changed his pyromaniac partner. But he's still childishly curious as to HOW different Mick will be.

 

It's a party.  
Iris joins them to the festive looking house where Len can already hear children yelling from the backyard as they park on the curb.  
"Barry!" a dark brown haired man with a strange metal thing on his chest waves to them as they approach the fence leading to the back. "I'm glad you could make it! Hey, Iris! Len!"  
Len waves back, caught up in the man's enthusiasm as he opens the gate for them.  
"Wow, he's getting big," the man grins, looking down at Len. "I bet you've been running your parents ragged trying to keep up with you, huh?"  
Len shrugs, unsure of what to say to the stranger.  
"Ronnie," Iris pulls the brunette in for a hug. "How is everything?"  
"Good, great even!" Ronnie grins, getting a hug from Barry next. "Reginald broke two teeth over the weekend, kept me and Caitlin up all night, so she's excited to hear noise that's a not related to tears."  
"How old is Mick today?" Barry asks as they make their way to the backyard and the playful yelling gets louder.  
"Nine," Ronnie shakes his head with a fond smile, eyes picking out a particular face in the crowd. "I can't believe how fast time flies by."

Len never knew Mick's parents. They were already gone when he met his partner in Juvie. Could this 'Ronnie' guy be the same person who was Mick's dad in his universe? Or had his partner acquired new parents like Len had?  
He searches the crowd for Mick, hoping there weren't too many brunettes running around to dismiss as candidates.  
"Want to get some snacks first?" Iris asks him, gently rearranged his hair. "I see some yummy looking fruit-ka-bobs that I think I'd like to try."  
"Okay," he takes her hand, lets her direct him to the snack table where some of the mothers were milling about as they keep watch on their scampering kids.  
Iris grabs each of them a stick with fruit on it and they eat together as they take everything in.  
There are colored streamers and balloons everywhere. Classic kid's party stuff. There's a snack table, a present table, and a table pre-set for the cake later. There's a castle blow up house that was being occupied by a set of giggling, triplet girls and some foam swords in a pile where most of the boys were fighting each other. A few other random games littered the corners of the immense back yard, but most of the focus was on the epic battle with a rowdy blonde taking center stage.  
'That's not Mick.' Len chews thoughtfully as he tries to get a good look at the others. He chuckles a little at himself as he decides to as his step-mom, "Which one's Mick?"  
"Hm," she focuses on the running rugrats. Her arm lifts to excitedly point out, "There he is!"  
There's a gangly looking boy sneaking around the tree just behind the blonde. Len recognizes the pleased smirk as his shrunken partner leaps from his hiding place to tackle the blonde to the ground.  
The attack instigates a pile up and Len's glad he hadn't tried joining in the 'fun'.  
"Iris! Len!" Caitlin Snow approaches them with a wide smile. "You're here! Where's Barry?"  
"Venting internal frustrations again," Iris sighs, hugging the other woman. "We had a, well horrific doesn't seem to suit it, but let's just say we'll never hire a babysitter ever again."  
"Oh, no," the woman's smile drops to a worried frown. She glances at Len before asking quietly, "Is Len? Did he or she?"  
"No, not," his step-mom smiles at him before whispering something into the other woman's ear.  
"Oh, I see," Caitlin shakes away the bad thoughts to offer Len an encouraging smile. "Do you want to play with the other boys, Len?"  
"Not if they're going to keep fighting," Len inwardly grimaces at the thought. He was never a 'down and dirty' sort of kid.  
"Mick'll play ring toss with you, he loves that game," Caitlin turns to the hectic pile of play-fighting bodies. "Mick!"  
The bodies roll away from the brunette like a cartoon and the gangly looking kid comes jogging over to the scientist, "Yeah, Mom?"  
'Mom?' Len blinks. He KNOWS that the speedster's friend wasn't his partner's mother. Looks like this version of his partner got new parents too.  
"This is, Len," Caitlin puts her hand on her son's shoulder to point him towards Len. "Do you remember Mommy's friend Barry?"  
"The crumb scene investor, yeah," Mick grins.  
"Crime scene investigator, honey," his mother giggles a little. She puts her other hand on Lens' shoulder. "This is his son, Len. He's younger than you, but I think he's old enough for you to teach him how to play ring toss."  
"I love that game!" Mick declares excitedly, he takes Len by the hand and starts to pull him in the right direction. "Come on, Len! I'll show you all my tricks!"

 

9 year-old Mick is very good at ring toss. Almost 5 year-old Len is not.  
"You've got to put your wrist into it," Mick explains, showing him a 'flicking' action a few times before tossing his ring again and getting it on the spike, again.  
Len tries to get the 'flicking' right, but his little arms aren't quite strong enough to get the ring close enough to the spike.  
"That's okay," the brunette smiles at him. "We can step closer."  
Mick lets Len stand right on top of the thing in order to get his first 'win'.  
"Booyah!" the brunette pumps the air with his fist. He moves his hand for a, "High five!"  
Len gives it to him. He's never seen his partner so happy without something being burnt to the ground.

"Cake time, boys!" Caitlin calls to them, arms full of a blue bundle that Len assumes must be Reginald.  
"I'll get it!" some random adult calls out and runs into the house.  
Everyone gathers at the pre-set table where Mick is put at the head by Ronnie.

"Wait, no!" Caitlin shouts out in worry as the man brings out a cake with candles already lit.  
Len turns a smirk to Mick, expecting to see excitement and maybe this younger version of his partner jumping up and down.  
He doesn't expect to see sheer terror before the poor boy runs away.  
"I've got him," Ronnie assures his wife, running after his son at a jog and calling out his name.  
"What?" The guest frowns as Caitlin puts the bundle into Iris's arms and hurriedly blows out the candles. "What did I do?"  
"It's okay, John," Caitlin offers the man a polite smile as she start to takes the smoking sticks off the cake. "Mick has pyrophobia, the fear of fire. I should have gotten the cake myself. It's not your fault."  
Pyrophobia. Len stares over to where Mick is being comforted by Ronnie. His pyromaniac partner was the complete opposite in this universe.  
Things just kept getting stranger and stranger.

"Don't worry, kiddo," Barry rubs his back and Len breaks his focus away from Mick to look up at him. "Mick will be fine. He just got a little scared. That's all."  
"Of course," Len smiles at him. "He has his Dad to take care of him."  
That startles the speedster a little and he crouches down to give Len a squeezing hug.  
"That's absolutely right, Len."

 

It doesn't take long for Mick to get over the fire scare and the party-goers sing 'Happy Birthday' to the 9 year-old as he smiles big and wide to them. The cake is delicious. Iris makes sure Barry gives him a 'piece big enough for a five year old' instead of the small square he was eyeing.  
Mick eats his cake with his fingers, forgoing any silverware. Len rolls his eyes at the action as he eats properly, with a fork. 

 

After cake, the children are 'released' again to burn off the energy. Len still doesn't care to join in the battle with the other boys so he goes for the castle instead. The triplets had to leave already and he had the whole thing to himself.  
For a while anyway.  
"Can I join you?" Barry asks, already taking off his shoes.  
"Aren't you too big?" It's an honest question. Len's never been on one of these things. They had to have a weight limit.  
"Not if it's just us two," his Dad smiles, rolling into the center before getting to his feet. "Want to see if I can bounce you off the ground?"  
Len grins, "Sure."  
'Why not?'

Len has never laughed so hard in his entire past life. Not even when he pulled off two robberies in one day and got incredibly drunk afterwards.

"Barry!" Iris laughs at them. "You're going to bounce him out of there!"  
"Huh?" the speedster stops jumping, turning to fall flat on his back to stop the constant motion. He looks worriedly over to Len. "You okay, buddy?"  
Len can't quite catch his breath so he nods instead.  
"I know this thing is pretty well protected but I swore I saw his head bounce in and out of the entrance three times, Bear," Iris scolds but it loses its bite with the large grin she's sporting. "Maybe it's best to leave it to the kids?"  
"Right, okay," the speedster blushes, moving to leave.  
"Wait," Len catches his shoulder, surprising himself when he doesn't want the other to leave. "Can, can I try to do it to you?"  
He knows he can't do it. He's far too small and weak in his little body.  
He just wants to try.  
"Sure," his dad moves to sit upright and looks at his him excitedly, "Go for it, Len!"  
Len doesn't allow himself to feel embarrassed. He jumps.  
He jumps as high and as hard as he can, as near as he can to Barry without stomping on him. He's sweating with the effort as his Dad barely jostles.  
Then the speedster nearly flies out of his spot and Len looks up to see that a grinning Mick has joined them.  
"Let's bounce him out of the castle, Len!" Mick laughs, face focused as he pulls his knees up high in his upward motion.  
Len tries to match his enthusiasm and Barry shouts out in protest as he rolls out.  
"Booyah!" Mick cheers, landing on his back laughing.  
Len collapses as well, too tired to even move for a few moments as he catches his breath again.  
"Are you okay, Barry?" his step-mom asks his dad. "You landed on your head. Were you planning on doing that?"  
"No," Barry sighs, getting to his feet. "I forgot how high off the ground this thing was."  
"You better be careful, Bear," Iris chuckles. "You'll influence Len to make bad decisions if you go around leaping from buildings."  
Len chuckles along with his step-mom as he rolls over to their voices.  
"I'm hungry," he tells them when his face turns towards theirs.  
"You just had cake," Barry smiles at him, putting his shoes back on with one hand.  
"Cake isn't food," Len chides his father with fake seriousness. "Can I have a hamburger and fries? Please?"  
"I'm a little hungry too," Iris joins in, looping her arm with her husband's. "We can catch a proper lunch on our way home."  
"How can I resist the both of you?" his Dad sighs in mock defeat. He looks over to the still resting Mick. "We got to get going, birthday boy. Are you still coming over next Friday for movie night?"  
"I'm bringing the popcorn!" Mick gives him a thumbs up from his laying down position. "I'd give you guys a hug if I wasn't so tired."  
"Rest up then, Mick," Iris tells him as she puts Len's shoes on for him. "We'll tell your parents where you are so they don't worry."  
"Thanks!" the brunette sighs, rolling his head to them to smile. "Thanks for coming, Len!"  
"Thanks for having me, Mick," Len smiles back, sliding from the castle to take his parents' hands. 

Barry and Iris say their goodbyes to Ronnie and Caitlin before they all go to the diner for lunch. 

-

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing.  
> But I love this Mick.


End file.
